Share Your Thoughts on This Week's Story: Anorexia Takes a Life

This week’s issue of PEOPLE magazine features a story about Ana Carolina Reston, a Brazil model who tragically died from complications due to anorexia at the age of 21. Following the August death of a Uruguayan model from heart failure during a fashion show, Reston’s death adds fuel to the outrage over too-thin models. Click here to read the story about Reston. You may also read our previous post on the PEOPLE’s cover story Pressure To Be Thin, by clicking here.

If you’d like to share your thoughts on this tragedy, or weigh in on the growing debate over weight issues in the fashion and entertainment industries, feel free to leave a comment here.

What a horrible twist of irony that “Ana” is the name anorexics use as a personification of their disease. I think that People magazine and the rest of the tabloids have alot to answer for when they promote stick thin women on the front cover with the words “Bikini Body” screaming out at ordinary women making them feel deflated and greedy. Normal people cannot afford nutritionists and personal trainers we should stop the perpetual cycle of low self esteem that is being bred in women by showing them images of unachievable “perfect” bodies

Marilyn
on November 27th, 2006

Its very tragic.. I hate the fact that society is so harsh on the way a persons weight.. It makes me so angry that all they hear is that they need to lose weight when they are already skinnier than most people.. SHAME on all people who pressured her to be so skinny

Brenda
on November 27th, 2006

How many more women must die from anorexia? I was almost one of them. I have been struggling with anorexia my whole adult life, now, at middle age I have had two heart attacks and done untold damage to my body, my metabolism etc. The media and celebraties are in some ways adding to this disease, but, the pressure on women to look perfect comes from all angles including men, airbrushing the photos to be flawless. Our society appaludes the rich and the very very thin, lets appalude the imperfections that make us beautiful. These models and stars are showing the women of America how to die. Trust me, you will die from starving. One way or another.

vivi_rebelo
on November 27th, 2006

Yes…this girls are pressured to be skinny(I’m from Brasil and I saw that her modeling agency doesnt even thing she died of anorexia but from other things…which is just ridiculous)…but lets just not put the blame all on them bc…the girl started to avoid food when she was still a little girl…and later on she started to not eat at all…I’m deeply sorry for her family…but their ignorance kind of played a huge role at this girl’s death…because when they would say for her to eat she would get mad and they didnt want to get in a argument so they stoped sayin’…just ridiculoussss…you cant do that…if she is sick and she cant admit that…is the “job” of the ones who love her to take her to see a doctor…its really sad that this kind of things happen nowadays…but is certainlly not a fault of lack of information but it is for believing that something like that it will never happen to someone close to us…

Barbara
on November 27th, 2006

I am struggling with anorexia as we speak. Anorexia is a horrible mental and physical disease. These stars are sending the wrong message to women. Once you start starving to be thin, to look like the models, to wear the clothes, anorexia takes hold and won’t let go. I am recovering from kidney failure, heart failure, and was on a feeding tube so I could be thin. Now, my goal is to be healthy, and to stay alive. Maybe we should say that Anorexia kills. If you starve it will kill you. Society wants us to be rich, to be thin, thinner, thinner. Anorexis will let you disappear, disappear into your grave. this is a serious problem with all women, young, middle aged, and older women. there are women from 18 to 60 years old in the hospital with me.

Tara Graybill
on November 27th, 2006

My prayers go out to Ana’s friends and family.
I wanted to write a comment because it frustrates me to hear and see people reactions to the disease. Anorexia is not all about “being skinny”. That is only a symptom. There are probably far more reasons why this poor girl girl died at such a young age to this disease. I just wish people would look at the real reason behind this disease then just the symptoms (losing to much wieght). There are so many reasons why a person would turn to an eating disorder in order to cope. Eating disorder is the same thing as a drug addict. It all depends on your drug of choice. I think now that to deaths have accured in the past month we should take this disease more seriously. Its not just about being skinny its much deeper. Trust me I know.

janice
on November 28th, 2006

My heart goes out to her family. The pressure to be thin is everywhere. They told her she was too short for the runway. She was under so much pressure to look thin and beautiful, just to work. It is a sickness you get in your mind that won’t go away. Everything you eat you worry about making you fat. Shame on the person who told her she was too short, it started a time bomb ticking.

dawn blagborne
on November 28th, 2006

i think it’s a shame that 64% of the american people are
obese.. being anorexic isn’t good either.. but, neither is
being obese.. thank god i’m neither…

Common Sense
on November 28th, 2006

Only in the vain, materialistic world of fashion and in suburban chicks with too much money and not enough genuine problems in life (being homeless, not having enough money to buy food, being gang-raped as in Darfur, etc.) is anorexia a “disease.” Until I see scientific proof that an anorexic has abnormal chemical balances in the brain, as with depression, will I believe it’s a “disease.” Same with alcoholism and drug-addiction. Chemical dependency is not a disease, either, it’s weak-willed, but I digress. Anorexics outside of modeling only do it because they are self-centered and want the undivided attention of all those around them. Anorexic models do it to look “good enough” to model, but if they had any self-respect and were worth anything other than just their looks, they would find a profession that valued them, not just their bodies. In short, this is not a tragedy – this is just another stupid, shallow girl who starved herself to death without care or regard for her poor mother or anyone else.

reyna
on November 28th, 2006

Is it a coincidence that both of these girls are South American? This isnt just an American problem- as a person very familiar with South American cultures, there is ALOT of pressure on women in many of the countries to look perfect, voluptuous and beautiful. It is no coincidence that plastic surgery/dieting is highly common in countries such as Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela.

This isn’t just a model problem, or an American industry problem, it is a global problem now that should be dealt with.